Ice Cream Science

Hold on though. Not only is it actually really interesting, a basic scientific understanding of the ingredients and the way they work together will also help you make better ice cream.​

Science will help you in two important ways:

When something’s not working, it will help you fix it

​When you want to start inventing, it will help you do so successfully.

So in this post, I’ll try to clarify what ice cream is. I’ll introduce all the individual components, highlight the special contribution of each and explain how they all work together in the final product.

Finally, I’ll describe the five stages that we go through to make ice cream and why each one is important.

I’ve tried to explain everything in as clear and straightforward way as possible. So there shouldn’t be any parts where you’re scratching your head in confusion.​

But I’ve also tried to go into enough depth to give you a complete understanding of what’s going on. This means it’s quite a long post! If anything's not clear, let me know and I’ll try to expand and improve.

What is ice cream?​

Ice cream is an very complex and delicate substance that contains all three states of matter at once:

solid (ice and fat)

liquid (sugar solution)

gas (air bubbles).

These states exist in a precarious balance. And it’s in that balance that we find the unique sensory qualities that we love!

Essentially, tiny particles of solid ice and fat surround and support air bubbles in a thickened sugar liquid solution.

Let’s look at each of these four components in more detail...

Component #1: Ice

Ice crystals give ice cream it’s firmness. They give it body and solidity. That resistance to your spoon and your tongue: that comes from ice crystals. About 30% of ice cream is made up of ice crystals.

Ice crystals are formed from the water in the mixture as it freezes. Maybe you think there's no water in ice cream? We don’t usually add any directly. But don’t forget: milk and cream are mostly water. Milk is 90% water. And cream is around 60% water.

Microscopic view of ice crystals in ice-cream: the smaller the better!

The size of these ice crystals is very, very important! Small ice crystals will make the ice cream smooth and less cold in the mouth. While large ice crystals will give the ice cream a coarse texture and an icy mouth-feel.

(This apparent difference in temperature is because larger ice crystals require more heat to melt. Since this takes heat away from your mouth, it makes the ice cream seem colder.)

Different people like different types of ice cream but one thing's for sure: good ice cream should be smooth! So keeping those ice crystals small is one of the most important parts of making quality ice cream.

​Component #2: Air

Air gives ice cream it’s softness. It keeps the ice cream pliable and makes it easy to scoop.

The air also contributes greatly to texture and consistency. Ice creams with more air are lighter, fluffier and less "creamy". While ice creams with less air are heavier, denser and more "creamy".

Microscopic view of air bubbles in ice cream: the smaller the better!

Air bubbles are added to the ice cream by the paddle (also known as the dasher) that churns the mixture as it freezes. The faster the blades of the dasher move through the mixture, the more air they add. And different shaped dashers will also affect how much air is pushed into the mix.

The spinning dasher adds air to the mixture

Overrun

The air bubbles also give ice cream most of it’s volume. The amount of air in ice cream is measured by something called "overrun". This is simply the increase in volume that the air contributes to the ice cream (measured as a percentage).

So, if you start off with 1 litre of ice cream mix and once churned it’s 1.5 litres, the volume has increased by 50%. And the over-run would be 50%.

So called “premium” ice creams tend to have lower overrun (around 25%). While cheap ice creams can have as much as 100% overrun. Why? Since air is free, it’s a very efficient way to increase the volume of your product without increasing the manufacturing cost!

Different types of ice cream also have different levels of overrun. Italian gelato for instance can have an overrun as low as 20%.

Brooklyn Brainery did a great study on the different levels of overrun in a variety of popular American ice creams. ​I'm providing a summary in the table below...

Ice cream Brand

Overrun %

America's Choice Tub o' Vanilla

102

America's Choice Premium "Vanilla Bean"

97

Breyer's "Homemade Vanilla"

98

Turkey Hill "Vanilla Bean"

104

Haagen Dazs "All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream"

31

Stonyfield Farm "Gotta Have Vanilla"

31

Ronnybrook "Hudson Valley Vanilla"

22

"Artisan" gelato

20-25

Is it best to have higher or lower overrun? Ultimately, it’s down to personal preference: if you like a light, fluffy ice cream, you’ll want to make it with a high over-run, if you prefer a dense, creamy ice cream you’ll be looking to make it with low over-run.

For home-made ice cream this can be influenced to some extent by which machine your buy. But almost all domestic ice cream makers produce ice creams with very low overrun (15 -30%).

I have added a simple overrun calculation to my ice cream calculator to help you measure the amount of air that's added to your own ice creams.

Component #3: Fat​

Fat contributes to ice cream in four important ways:

it helps to stabilize the final structure by trapping air bubbles

it thickens the mixture which slows melting

it delivers flavor

it gives that lovely creamy texture and mouth-feel.

The fat in ice cream mostly comes from the milk and cream and is called butterfat. Around 3.4% of whole milk is fat. While cream can vary between 30 and 48% fat, depending on what type is being used. So mostly it comes from the cream!

Microscopic view of fat globules (F) in ice cream

This fat exists as tiny, solid globules suspended in the milk and cream. But how do these fat globules stabilize the ice cream?

How fat helps stabilize the ice cream

Well, before the mixture is churned the fat globules are very small and are kept apart from each other (more on this later). However, while the ice cream mixture is being churned, the fat globules bang together and join up to form long, pearl like strings that wrap around the air bubbles.

Strings of fat globules (FC) supporting an air bubble (A)

These strings hold the air bubbles in place, keeping the “foam” stable. This is how the ice cream maintains it’s light texture, soft consistency and volume: all the qualities that the air bubbles contribute to ice cream.

How fat effects creaminess and flavor release

The fats also give ice cream it’s creamy texture and richness. Higher fat ice creams are rich and creamy with a long lingering after taste. While lower fat ice creams have a much lighter, cleaner flavor with a short lived after taste.

Interestingly, any additional flavours (fruits, chocolates, nuts etc) in the ice cream are also affected by this. This is because the fat tends to hang onto these flavours.

So the fruit flavor in a strawberry ice cream will be delivered more slowly and subtly (but more long lastingly) in a higher fat ice cream. And will be more clearer and prominent (but relatively short lived) in a lower fat ice cream.

Whether you prefer higher fat, rich and creamy ice creams or light and clean, lower fat ice creams is a matter of personal taste. American and French ice creams tend to be higher in fat. While Italian ice creams are usually a bit leaner.

Changing the fat content in your ice cream

You can alter the fat content of your own ice cream by playing around with the proportions of milk and cream in your base mixture. Higher fat ice creams have more cream, while lower fat ice creams have more milk. You need to be careful though: too much or too little fat will can ruin your ice cream...

Too much, will give an unpleasant, cloying flavor and a blobby, buttery texture from the crystallization of the fat particles.

Too little and there wont be enough fat globules to form the strands that stabilize the air bubbles so the ice cream will be wet and coarse and will melt easily.

Component #4: Sugar Solution​

This is the liquid part of ice cream. It’s in this sugar solution (also called the matrix) that the solid ice crystals and fat globules and the gaseous air bubbles are suspended.

Ice, air and fat suspended in the sugar solution (matrix)

But what does this sugar solution consist of? Essentially there are 3 elements: water, sugars and proteins. Let’s look at each in turn...

Water​ in the sugar solution

As we already know, the water in ice cream comes from the milk and cream. Some of this water freezes into solid ice crystals. But some of it will remain in a liquid state even at 0°F (-18 °C).

But if water freezes at 32°F (0 °C), how can this be? Well, when sugar is dissolved in water it lowers the freezing point of that water. And the more sugar there is, the more concentrated the sugar solution and the lower the freezing point.

In water, as sugar concentration (molality of sucrose) increases, the freezing point decreases

The initial concentration of sugar in the water does allow ice crystals to form. But as those ice crystals grow, there’s less unfrozen, free flowing water, so the concentration of sugar in that remaining water increases.

This lowers the freezing temperature further, until a point at which the remaining super sweet water will not freeze, even at 0°F / -18 °C. And in this way, a proportion of the ice cream always remains liquid.

Sugars​ in the sugar solution

Some sugar (lactose) occurs naturally in milk and cream. But the vast majority of the sugar in ice cream is added separately by us.

We add most of the sugar to ice cream

We can add loads of different types of sugar to ice cream. And they all play the same role: they make it sweet, they give it body and they keep it soft. But different sugars will do each of these to different extents.

All sugars obviously add sweetness. But different types of sugar are less or more sweet. The sweetness of different sugars is measured against that of table sugar (Sucrose) and is called "Relative sweetness". The higher the number, the more sweet the sugar is.

All sugars will add body to the finished ice cream. How much body will depend on the total percentage of solids they contain. Obviously Honey (which is a liquid solution) contains less solids than Sucrose.

And all sugars lower the freezing point of water, which stops ice crystals from forming. More sugar means less ice crystals. And less ice crystals means a softer ice cream. But different types of sugars lower the freezing point to different degrees. This is measured by "Relative freezing point depression". The higher the number, the further the sugar lowers the freezing point of water.

Sugar

Relative sweetness

Total solids %

Relative freezing point depression

Sucrose

100

100

1.0

Dextrose

74

92

1.9

Fructose

173

100

1.9

Lactose

16

100

1.0

Maltodextrin

20

100

0.3

Honey

75

74

1.46

Invert sugar

125

77

1.9

Karo light corn syrup

33

80

1.9

This is why you’ll often see ice cream recipes that include several different types of sugar. By mixing them up we can fine tune the sweetness, body and softness of the final ice cream.

Milk Solids Non Fat​ in the sugar solution

It sounds very technical but Milk Solids Non Fat (MSNF) are just the proteins, lactose and minerals found naturally in milk and cream. Cow’s milk is around 87% water, 4% proteins and 4.8% lactose with the remainder being salts and minerals.​

The proteins have two very important functions in ice cream:

they help the fat globules trap the air bubbles and stabilize the final product

they contribute to the characteristic dairy flavor.

In some recipes you will see the addition of Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP). Since skimmed milk powder is essentially milk protein and lactose, these recipes are simply increasing the MSNF component of the mixture.

So that was a quick look at the basic components that make up all ice creams. The way the ice crystals, the air bubbles, the fat globules and the sugar solution interact under different conditions is what makes ice cream, well, ice cream!

However, these relationships are fragile and we can add two other components to help strengthen them and improve the quality and stability of the final product. They go by the rather scientific names: Stabilizers and Emulsifiers.

​Emulsifiers

The role of emulsifiers in ice cream production can be confusing. So let’s start with the basics…

​What is an emulsion?

An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are not normally mixable! And by not normally mixable, I mean that one won’t dissolve in the other.

The most obvious example of an emulsion is an oil and vinegar salad dressing. Neither the oil nor the vinegar will dissolve in the other. But when we combine the two and stir vigorously, the oil is broken up into tiny particles which are dispersed evenly throughout the vinegar to create a consistent mixture. This is an emulsion...

Oil and vinegar mixed together becomes an emulsion

A less obvious example of an emulsion is milk! Milk is basically an emulsion of liquid fat globules in water.

Now emulsions are by their nature unstable: remember they consist of liquids that are not normally mixable. And left to their own devices they will separate. A salad dressing left on the shelf will separate into two layers of oil and water.

And milk straight from the cow will quickly separate into two layers: fatty cream and watery milk. This happens when the fat globules in the milk cluster together, separating from the water...

Separated milk

However, the milk we buy in the supermarket is “homogenized”. When milk is homogenized it is essentially mixed vigorously under high pressure. This breaks up the fat globules into much smaller particles.

Un-homogenized to homogenized milk

These smaller, weaker particles attract proteins in the milk which interfere with the natural inclination of the fat globules to cluster together. And if they can’t cluster together, the milk can’t separate into cream and milk.

So when milk is homogenized, the natural emulsion is strengthened, making it much more difficult for it to separate into milk and cream.

​What’s this got to do with ice cream?

The purpose of milk homogenization is to create a stronger emulsion where the fat globules are unable to cluster together.

But remember: to make ice cream, we need the fat globules to cluster together to form long strands that will hold the air bubbles in place.

So when we make ice cream we actually need to de-emulsify the milk to emulsify the ice cream!

How do we de-emulsify the milk?

It’s the proteins attached to the fat globules that are preventing those globules clustering together. So we need to remove the protein molecules from the fat globules. And this is where emulsifiers come in.

Emulsifiers will destabilize the emulsion

Any emulsifiers in the mixture will attach themselves to the surface of the fat globules, displacing many of the proteins. And the emulsifiers don’t interfere with the natural inclination of the fat globules to cluster together in the same way as the proteins do.

But what are these magic emulsifiers? And where do them come from? Well, in home-made ice cream they often come from eggs! Or more specifically egg yolks.

Egg yolks will emulsify the ice cream mixture

Egg yolks contribute three important things to an ice cream mixture: fat, protein and a chemical called Lecithin. And it’s the Lecithin in eggs that acts like an emulsifier: displacing the proteins on the membranes of the flat globules and allowing those globules to cluster again.

Of course you can make ice cream without eggs. Some Italian gelatos use cornstarch or tapioca starch instead, which amongst other things fill the emulsifying role of eggs. And commercial ice cream manufacturers prefer synthetic emulsifiers such as Polysorbate 80.

But if you don’t use something as an emulsifier, your ice cream wont have the same smooth texture and slow meltdown as those made with emulsifiers. This is one of the reasons why Philly style ice creams tend to be coarser and more fast melting: they don’t use eggs or any other emulsifiers.

Check out my emulsifier page for lots more information about these magic ingredients and how to use them properly.

Stabilizers

Just like emulsifiers, stabilizers can also improve the texture and structure of ice cream. But they do it in a different way.

Stabilizers act a bit like sponges, soaking up any excess water in the ice cream mixture. This will obviously thicken the ice cream. By holding onto that water it also slows melting. And it also helps prevent the growth of ice crystals during storage, so the ice cream maintains a nicer texture for longer.

Most stabilizers are derived from plants. However, some come from bacteria or animal origins.

Locust bean gum is a great stabilizer, derived from the seeds of the Carob Tree

Stabilizers are used in pretty much all commercial ice creams. This is largely to guarantee a long shelf life for their products. But in home-made ice creams they are less common. And in fact many purists are wary of them.

I don’t take this line at all. Making the best possible ice cream is my main priority. As home enthusiasts on small budgets we’re already handicapped by limited machines and freezers. So if I can use a perfectly natural and safe ingredient to improve the quality of my ice cream I want to at least try it out.

Some of the best ice creams in the world use stabilizers

Having said that some people have intolerance's to the stabilizers. So you’d be wise to check that out if you plan on using them!

For more information on the different stabilizers, how they can improve our ice cream and the best ways to use them, check out the stabilizer page!

OK, we’ve looked at all the four key components that make up ice cream. And we should have a good idea how they work together in the final product. But how do these individual elements come together to make ice cream?

Well, let’s look at the five stages of ice cream production and see how each stage contributes to the final product.

The Five Stages of Ice cream Production

Preparing the mix

Pre-chilling

Ageing

Freezing

Hardening​

Stage 1: Preparing the mix

This is all about the recipe. And it’s probably the most important stage in the whole process. Because if we get this wrong, it doesn’t matter what happens in the next four stages: our ice cream will be rubbish.

This means we’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right amount of each ingredient so that we have the ideal proportions of fats, sugars and solids.

Once we're sure the recipe is balanced, it's time to heat the mix. This serves two purposes:

it pasteurizes the mixture, which is important for health reasons

it encourages milk protein "denaturation" which will help stabilize the ice cream

i) Pasteurization​

Home-made ice cream generally uses pre-pasteurized milk. But if the mixture contains eggs, they need to be pasteurized by us. This is to kill any dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella which may be present.

Heating the mixture has several advantages

Traditionally we would heat the mixture to 85°C (185 °F). However, if we want to reduce the eggy flavor in the final ice cream we could instead keep the mixture at 69 °C (156 °F) for 20 minutes.

This will also pasteurize the eggs and thicken the mixture. But it keeps the mixture beneath the 72 °C (162 °F) at which egg proteins start to denature, releasing that characteristic eggy flavour.

Sometimes that flavour is desirable. But if it’s not and we still want to take advantage of the thickening and emulsifying properties of egg yolks, this is an option!

​If there are no eggs in the mixture, then there’s no need to pasteurize it. However, there are a couple of good reason why it’s a good idea to heat it up anyway:

It can help infuse any added flavours into the mix

It can help with milk protein "denaturation"

ii) Milk protein denaturation

When we heat the mixture the whey proteins in the milk undergo partial protein unfolding which is also know as denaturation. Essentially this just means that their structure changes under the stress of the heat.

Milk protein denaturation

However, this new structure is more inclined to stabilize the air bubbles in the ice cream. So what it means for us is a smoother, more stable final product.

​Stage 2: Pre-chilling

​Once the mixture has been pasteurized, it should be cooled down as quickly as possible. This is to minimize the time it remains between 45 °C (113 °F) and 15 °C (59 °F) which is when harmful bacteria can re-develop.

Ideally, we should place the mixture in an ice bath until it reaches room temperature and then transfer it to the fridge where it will continue to cool down to 4 °C.

Using an ice bath will cool the mixture faster

This pre-chilling also contributes to a smoother texture in the finished ice cream. There's a close relationship between the amount of time the mixture spends in the ice cream machine and ice crystal size in the final product. Essentially: the less time in the machine, the smaller the crystals.

So clearly, we should do all we can to reduce the time the mixture spends in the machine. And by using a mixture that's already chilled, we help the machine do it's job more quickly, which means smaller crystals and a smoother final ice cream.

If you pre-chill the mixture in the fridge overnight it will also benefit from "ageing". But what is ageing?

Stage 3: Ageing​

​Keeping it in the fridge overnight will obviously allow any flavors we’ve added to the mixture to develop more depth.

But it also encourages two chemical changes which will encourage the mixture to hold air better once it’s being churned and produce a more stable final product:

Firstly, the fat globules start to crystallize. This is where small, spiky crystals emerge from the surface of the globules. Once the mixture is being churned, these pointy crystals will help globules stick to other globules to form the long stings that hold the air bubbles in place.

Secondly, any emulsifiers in the mixture (either from the eggs yolks or other sources) will start to displace the milk proteins on the surface of the fat globules. Remember, it’s these proteins that were helping keep the milk homogenized by discouraging the globules from clumping together.

​So, with the milk proteins gone and these spiky needles protruding from their surface, the fat globules are now primed for "partial coalescence". This is when they will start to clump together to form the scaffolding that supports the structure of the final ice cream!

Stage 4: Freezing​

The ice cream mixture is then added to a machine which simultaneously chills and churns it. In doing so it makes three important changes to the mixture which will transform it into ice cream...

1. Creates ice crystals in the mixture

The ice cream mix sits in a container within the machine. This container is cooled rapidly and the mixture that's in direct contact with the sides of the container begins to freeze, forming ice crystals.

In the middle the container is a rotating “dasher”, with blades that scrape against the sides. As it rotates, the blades scrape the ice crystals off the sides and move them into the middle of the mixture.

The rotating dasher 1) scrapes ice from the sides of the bowl and 2) moves it into the center

The displaced ice crystals further cool the rest of the mixture. And the space they leave on the sides is rapidly filled by new mixture which forms new ice crystals.

Then as the dasher continues to rotate, the new ice crystals are scraped away again. And so it goes on, with more ice being distributed throughout the mix as it cools down.

​2. Adds air to the mixture

The movement of the dasher also forces pockets of air into the mixture. Then as they turn, the blades break these pockets of air into smaller and smaller air bubbles which are evenly distributed throughout the mix.

The air increases the volume of the mixture

These small, evenly distributed air bubbles are essential for a smooth, stable final product.

3. Encourages partial coalescence​

The dasher blades fulfill one other, very important function. By churning the mixture they cause some of the fat droplets to collide and join together or “coalesce”. This is where we see the benefits of the ageing stage...

The emulsifiers that replaced the proteins on the surface of the fat globules during ageing have already weakened the stability of the emulsion. And now as the fat globules are mixed, the spiky crystals (which also formed during ageing), pierce the layers of other fat globules as they collide, allowing them to stick together more easily.

This process is called partial coalescence. And the partially coalesced fat droplets are known as de-emulsified or destabilized fat.

Partially coalesced fat globules form strings which support the air bubbles

More importantly, this coalescence creates the strings of fat globules that wrap around the air bubbles and hold them in place. So ironically, it is the destabilized fats which stabilize the air bubbles in the final ice cream!

There is an important balance to be maintained here. If there’s too much protein or not enough emulsifiers in the mix, the emulsion will be too stable, and the fat globules won’t coalesce. While if there’s not enough protein or too many emulsifiers, the emulsion will de-stabilize and too much of the fat will coalesce.

Too little partial coalescence and there may not be enough fat to hold the air bubbles in place. This will result in an unstable foam that’s wet and coarse.

Too much partial coalescence and the coalesced fat droplets become so large you can feel them in your mouth. Known as “buttering”, this isn’t pleasant either!

​The final ice cream starts to come together

As more and more water starts to freeze into ice crystals, the mixture starts to thicken. Since there's less water, the sugars in the remaining water become more and more concentrated.

This further reduces the freezing point of the mixture until at last the remaining liquid contains too much sugar to freeze further.

​At the same time, the beating of the blades and the emulsifiers in the mixture encourage the fat globules to group together and coalesce. They form strings which together with the proteins trap and stabilize the air bubbles that are introduced to the mix by the rotating blades.

And so here we have the three states in a delicate balance. The solid ice crystals, the air bubbles and the super sweetened liquid cream.

Commercial vs Domestic Ice Cream Makers

Commercial ice cream machines (also called batch freezers) have two significant advantages over the ice cream machines we use at home:

they can freeze the mixture much faster

they can add more air to the mixture.

We already know that smaller ice crystals mean a smoother ice cream. The faster the mixture is frozen, the less time the small, newly formed ice crystals will have to grow into large, coarser crystals.

Commercial ice cream makers can freeze the mixture much faster

The mixture should leave your fridge and enter the machine at about 4 °C. The machines job is to cool it to between -5 °C and -7 °C (23 °F and 19.4 °F). Commercial machines can do this in less that 10 min. Domestic machines may take as long as 45 min. And it’s during this extra time that the small crystals can grow.

​There’s not a lot we can do about this. Except get the mixture as cold as possible before we put in in the machine.

Stage 5: ​Hardening

When it reaches about -6 °C (21 °F) the ice cream should be removed from the machine. At this point it is still very soft with a consistency much like soft serve ice cream. So we transfer it to a freezer to harden.

Commercial vs Domestic Freezers

Commercial feezers will cool the ice cream to -35 °C (-31 °F). At this temperature, further ice crystallization is impossible so the ice cream will remain smooth.

Commercial blast freezer get really cold!

Unfortunately, domestic freezers won’t reach these temperatures so we need to content ourselves with cooling the ice cream as quickly as possible.

If you want to eat it all the same day (and why not?), you should cool it to around -12 °C (10 °F) which is the ideal serving temperature.

But if want it to last more than a couple of days you need to get it down to -18 °C (-0.4 °F) as quickly as you can. However, home made ice cream is not meant to be stored for long periods of time and you won’t get much more than a week before the quality really starts to deteriorate.

Wrapping Up​

I hope that this post has given you a solid understanding of the science behind ice cream. Not only is it (I hope!) pretty interesting. It will also enable you to fix things when they go wrong and to experiment within the bounds of what is scientifically possible! As always, if you have any questions or comments, please let me know below…

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 6 comments

Jake Sterling
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March 2, 2018

Thanks for an incredibly useful presentation of the science of ice cream making. One thing I don’t see is anything about the importance of temperature. You mention that freezing fast is better for keeping ice crystals small than freezing slowly, but you don’t say much about how to get that to happen. I find that, if I store my Cusinart freezing bowl in a deep freeze type of freezer where the temperature is well below freezing (-18°C., 0°F.), the ice cream comes out well, but if I only use the freezer on my refrigerator, it just doesn’t get cold enough. This is also true when using the ice and salt method. If the ice is really cold, things work much better than if it hasn’t been kept in a deep freeze—even though it may not be visibly melting before you start.